Installation of Sanitary Pad Dispensers in All Girls' Restrooms of Middle and High Schools in Guro-gu

Seoul's First Autonomous District Enacts 'Universal Provision of Menstrual Products for Female Adolescents Ordinance' Establishing Legal Basis... Implemented This Year in High Schools and Out-of-School Youth Support Centers, Expansion to Middle Schools Planned for Next Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Guro-gu (Mayor Lee Sung) will install ‘sanitary pad storage boxes’ in all girls’ restrooms of middle and high schools in the district.

Guro-gu announced on the 3rd, “To promote the health and welfare of female adolescents, we will provide ‘sanitary pad storage boxes’ in school girls’ restrooms and supply sanitary pads free of charge. This year, the project will target high schools, and next year it will be expanded to middle schools.”

This project is being implemented based on the ‘Universal Provision of Menstrual Products for Female Adolescents Ordinance’ enacted by Guro-gu in October last year, the first among Seoul’s autonomous districts.

Guro-gu enacted the ordinance following the social consensus that menstrual products should be provided in the public sector, sparked by the 2016 ‘Insole Sanitary Pad’ incident where students used shoe insoles as substitutes due to lack of money to buy pads. The ordinance was primarily proposed by Guro-gu Council member Hee-seo Kim.

The ordinance allows the provision of menstrual products such as sanitary pads and menstrual cups to female adolescents aged 11 to 18 residing in Guro-gu.

Previously, most schools stocked sanitary pads in the health room. Students urgently needing pads had to visit the health room and fill out a usage log.

However, the inconvenience of having to visit the health room whenever needed, along with feelings of embarrassment and stigma, resulted in low usage rates.

To address these issues, Guro-gu decided to install sanitary pad storage boxes in restrooms, considering accessibility, convenience, and management efficiency.

To this end, a demand survey was conducted in August targeting all high schools in the district, followed by preliminary procedures such as selecting contractors and manufacturing storage boxes. Last month, ‘sanitary pad storage boxes’ were installed and put into operation at 12 locations including hopeful high schools in the district and the Guro-gu Out-of-School Youth Support Center.

The installation sites are ▲ Sindorim High School ▲ Guil High School ▲ Gyeongin High School ▲ Deokil Electronics Technical High School ▲ Yuhan Technical High School ▲ Seoul Performing Arts High School ▲ Yerim Design High School ▲ St. Peter’s School ▲ Jeongjin School ▲ West Seoul Life Science High School ▲ Oryu High School ▲ Guro-gu Out-of-School Youth Support Center.

Additional installations will be made soon at four high schools where boxes have not yet been installed, in coordination with the schools.

The sanitary pad storage boxes are stocked with three types of sanitary pads preferred by students, allowing each to choose their desired product. Any female adolescent can freely use up to 30 pads per month.

Guro-gu supports the purchase cost of about 97,000 sanitary pads every month.

A Guro-gu official said, “We expect that students in the district will be able to use sanitary pads comfortably without feeling self-conscious through this project,” and added, “We will continue to do our best to support the health and happy school life of adolescents.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.